Team Rebel Design Beholder DS-1 3 Axis Handheld Gimbal

Beholder-DS1-001.png
 
I am considering this gimbal, but so far all test footage I have seen with these systems has the same noticeable vertical wobble due to the steps of the operator. Not as smooth as ronin and the likes...
 
kostas said:
I am considering this gimbal, but so far all test footage I have seen with these systems has the same noticeable vertical wobble due to the steps of the operator. Not as smooth as ronin and the likes...
Click to expand...
I've seen this in all one hand gimbals and even some two handed gimbals. One does have to learn the "gimbal walk."

The new Nebula 4200 looks promising in that regard (offers both one handed and two handed mode). In the two handed gimbal there are springs that, in theory, should get rid of the vertical motion just like a streadycam arm rig. I say "in theory" because it is not yet released. See their 5 axis description. Keep in mind that in single hand mode it would probably be similar to the DS-1
http://filmpower.us/products/pre-or...oscope-stabilizer-for-5drs-5d3-5d2-a7s-gimbal
 
kostas said:
I am considering this gimbal, but so far all test footage I have seen with these systems has the same noticeable vertical wobble due to the steps of the operator. Not as smooth as ronin and the likes...
Click to expand...

In addition to what cseeman wrote, keep in mind that because gimbals like the Ronin and Helix, especially when proerly rigged out with wireless video transmitters and follow focus and all that, are quite heavy all told (the weight adds up). That leads to two side effects. One is that the inertia itself dampens some of the smaller movements that show with the smaller rigs, and another is that people using these bigger rigs tend to gravitate toward using supplemental rigs like Easyrigs to shift the weight onto their hips instead of their arms so that they can last longer, but it also dampens the smaller jostling movements as well as the shake that walking induces.

I have a pretty smooth walk already which works pretty well for gimbal use (who knew that the Goju walk would turn out to be useful for filmmaking?), but speed it up to a run or add stairs or rough terrain where you need to see and avoid obstacles, and the shake comes back. Use a rig like an Easyrig, and it looks like Steadicam again. Of course, you do lose the handoff option with a lot of these rigs, so that's the tradeoff. :)
 
Anyone got theirs yet? Some people on FB got them and are complaining about defects, bit it could be just the settings.
 
Just picked one of these up and tested it out today and I'm very impressed. I sold my Nebula 4000 and am already very glad I did since this DS1 is better tuned out of the box for my A7SII than my Nebula 4000 ever was with hours of PID tuning (don't get me wrong it worked great but still had limitations). I can invert while operating no problem and didn't have to tune and PIDs and it's clear that it can handle a lot more weight so I could throw just about any lens I own on now. Also rebalancing seems very convenient, as does leveling and the screen on my camera is much less obstructed, as are the HDMI/audio/USB ports. I got mine for $650 as a best offer on ebay which makes it a steal. I was expecting to have to spend some time with SimpleBGC tuning it like on my N4000 but was pleasantly surprised it is so well tuned out of the box. And I don't have to worry about internal cable getting pinched anymore. I was worried it would be a lot heavier and bigger but it really doesn't feel like it since it collapses down a bit more and the materials seem fairly lightweight.

Only issue I'm seeing so far is the joystick seems fairly laggy. Also I haven't even openened up SimpleBGC to see if I can fix that or to see how wireless remote control functionality works.
 
Yeah I thought about BH and owldolly and cnchelicopter since they all sell it too, but from ebay I get 2% back in ebay bucks and it was delivered in 3days from a US seller for $100 less than the BH price, not to mention they charged me no tax or shipping... And ebay tells you exactly how many are in stock where others sometimes don't update frequently enough to let you know if it's actually a backorder.
 
For me B&H 30 day return policy is important. That's especially for something like this which will require a bit of time to determine if there's any issues. Of course maybe the Amazon retailer has a similar policy.
 
cseeman said:
For me B&H 30 day return policy is important. That's especially for something like this which will require a bit of time to determine if there's any issues. Of course maybe the Amazon retailer has a similar policy.
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Yeah certain items I always buy at B&H for their return policy since they are close by me and I'm there all the time, but for a $150+ discount I'd go for ebay if it's an item that I have researched carefully and know I would only return if it's faulty. The ebay seller had a 14-day return policy.

Here's the one I bought on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/351629954488
They accepted a $650 best offer pretty much immediately which I was a little surprised about.

Frankly the fact that the B&H one was in stock but had a higher price and no information scared me off a little since you don't know what Ikan changed about it compared to the original. It looks like it may not come with the extra set of batteries and has different colored knobs but who knows what else is different. I haven't been impressed by ikan in the past, they seem to just rebrand chinese items and sometimes make them worse and rarely make them better and then they charge more for it.
 
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